I have an Opteron Server machine (in a large workstation class case) running on the Tyan 2895 motherboard. It's a dual CPU socket board, but I only have one 270 in there. I have 4GB of RAM, but less than 3GB is addressable, even in 64bit mode, due to the way the board is designed.

Is it worth spending a few hundred on an additional CPU and maybe some more RAM? The other problem is that one of the two SATA ports on the board had its wire socket break off. So only one drive can be run as of now. I could have it repaired, but at what cost? Add in the fact that the power supply is gunked up with dust and it's a bit of a nightmare. I actually work about it getting too hot.

Seems that for the money I could buy a new server rack from Dell, but it also seems a shame to waste an otherwise working, and for my needs still very fast machine.